Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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Here’s one of the crazier claims you’ll ever hear from a “faith healer” — read “con artist” — from wingnut extraordinaire Cindy Jacobs. She claims she prayed for a woman and reversed a hysterectomy, replacing her uterus so she could get pregnant.[Read more…]

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As if Mitt Romney wasn’t having enough trouble pretending that he didn’t really mean it when he passed a universal healthcare plan in Massachusetts, now it comes out that Newt Gingrich praised that plan in 2006 and wanted a similar plan passed nationally. Politico has the quote from a Wall Street Journal article that is behind a paywall:[Read more…]

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Jerome Corsi, Orly Taitz’ date to the Wingnuttia High School prom, promotes the loony theories of fellow birther Ron Polland, who has filed laughably idiotic challenges to the non-profit status of Factcheck.org because that site has rejected their favorite delusion that Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim commie.[Read more…]

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The Huffington Post reports on yet another appalling situation brought on by the war on drugs. A mother of three who needs a kidney transplant is being kicked out of public housing because someone else was caught with drug paraphernalia in her house.[Read more…]

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Frank Mugisha, one of the most courageous human rights activists you could ever encounter, has an op-ed in the New York Times about anti-gay violence in his home country of Uganda. He thanks Hillary Clinton for speaking out on the subject and the Obama administration for making the human rights of gays and lesbians an important aspect of our diplomatic efforts. And he makes this interesting point:[Read more…]

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A local Tea Party politician in Hartland Township, Michigan has managed to convince that township’s board of trustees to ban the addition of fluoride to area water supplies. Seriously, have I died and gone to the 1960s?[Read more…]

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I am on record praising many of Ron Paul’s positions, but I’ve also said that while I think he is refreshing on many issues of executive power and bill of rights issues I cannot support him. And the most powerful reason why I can’t support him is because I think his ideas on other issues are extraordinarily dangerous. And nothing exemplifies that more than the We The People act that he has sponsored in the House.[Read more…]

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I’ve written very little about two pieces of legislation currently in the works in Congress, the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, both of them backed by big business interests and both of them causing serious First Amendment problems. Con law scholars Mark Lemley, David Levine, and David Post explain some of the problems:[Read more…]

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There’s been an amusing little battle going on between Ricky Gervais and some fundie wingnuts on Twitter over his support for gay rights and acceptance of evolution. A lot of it was just stupid juvenile taunts from some guy named Keith, who tweets under the name GodsWordIsLaw, with Gervais responding with far more civility and kindness than I would have. A few examples from Keith:[Read more…]

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The religious right’s latest faux freakout is over the Obama family holiday card because — gasp! — it doesn’t mention Christmas! The hissy fit is being led by the queen bee of shallow and stupid, Sarah Palin.[Read more…]

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Even for someone who writes a lot about police brutality, this story is shocking (not surprising, but appalling). Lee County jail officers tied a man to a chair, put a hood over his head and sprayed him with pepper spray over and over again, resulting in his death. And even though the coroner ruled it a homicide, the officers have faced no consequences.[Read more…]

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Right Wing Watch reports that a non-existent being — Satan, of course — is once again attacking fundie nutball and first class fraud Rod Parsley. But don’t worry, if you’ll just send him money he can fend off the attack.[Read more…]

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These are the kinds of stories that make me miss running the Michigan Messenger. A Republican state representative in my home state is proposing a bill to require drug testing for anyone who receives public assistance.[Read more…]

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Apparently, Franklin Graham came out recently and said that a Christian could vote for Mitt Romney despite him being a Mormon. Steven Andrew — not to be confused by our own DarkSyd — takes exception to that in a press release:[Read more…]

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When it was revealed that anti-gay Minnesota state Sen. Amy Koch had cheated on her husband, one could only assume that this was, yet again, the devastating effects of same-sex marriage. Thankfully, at least one gay Minnesota resident has seen the errors of his ways and apologized for destroying the sanctity of her marriage:[Read more…]